Credit In The Straight World

The music world is not kind to women. Sure, there are a few who have been allowed onto the honour roll; Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry, and a few others. But for the most part, the role of woman in music mythology is that of Eve, the Temptress who brings about The Fall. Even today, in these supposed enlightened times, the blame for The Beatles break-up falls squarely on Yoko Ono. We ignore the pre-One bickering, the competition between John and Paul; no it was all her fault. She came and stole John away from his friends. We will never forgive her.

In the 1990s, we had a destructive replay of this; The nasty woman came and tempted sensitive Kurt. She liked being famous. He didn't. He shot himself because he couldn't cope with it, leaving a child without a father. The blame came down upon Courtney Love. She wasn't good enough for him, they said. She didn't help his heroin addiction. She ordered his death, contracting out a hit-man, according to the crazier section of the fanbase. Whatever the truth was, we didn't have Kurt anymore and it was all Her Fault. As a result, we laughed at her efforts to have a career; we didn't care that "Live Through This" rocked as hard as anything Nirvana ever did, or that the follow-up "Celebrity Skin" was an AM Rock masterpiece. We laughed at her entry into film, and celebrated when Hole broke up in acrimony shortly after their second album. She took Kurt away from us.

Since the end of Hole, Courtney Love has been taking lots of drugs, speaking out against the record industry, taking Geffen/Universal to court in an attempt to get out of her record contract, and, most recently, fighting for custody of her daughter, Frances Cobain. She's also been working on her first solo album, America's Sweetheart. It's been a few years in the making, going through several different record labels, line-ups, and songs. But it's here now. The released version is co-written with Linda Perry (once of the 4 Non Blondes, and a collaborator with Pink and Christina Aguilera), and comes out next Monday.

"Did you miss me?" she cries out on the opening track and first single, "Mono". It's a mixture of "Celebrity Skin" and the harder rock feel of "Violet"; as declarations of intent go, it's rather spectacular. For a moment, it's all back; the posture, the rage, everything. Then the second track comes in and the album comes off the rails. "But Julian, I'm A Little Too Old For You" is a song that's been kicking around for over a year, a song dedicated to Julian Casablancas from The Strokes, and it's just awful and sketchy (hurrah! I've been looking for an excuse to use that word for a year now). Thankfully, the record recovers fairly quickly, settling into a cross of the AM Rock from "Celebrity Skin" and Pink's "Mizzunderstood". The standout track is "Sunset Strip", a re-examination of Hollywood and the pop/rock world. It borrows some of the melody from R.E.M.'s "Man on The Moon" (if you're going to steal, you might as well steal something good), and I like the lyric "broken hearts that they use as Valentines". But that might just be me. "Life Despite Me" is a bit too schreechy, but has an interesting structure, and the final song, "Never Gonna Be The Same", is a wonderful melancholy closer.

Is it as good as "Celebrity Skin"? No, but it's better than "Live Through This", and shows once again that Ms. Love is more talented than her detractors would have you believe…

currently playing: Melissa Auf Der Maur — Lightning Is My Girl
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